that was helping president obama until the denver debate. now this race is tight and very much in flux. gwen: let's talk about the trend lines. the president can still claim 31 months of unsbrurmented job growth but mitt romney just made that point about how if different things were true this would be 11%. does he have a point? >> well, you can take statistics and play with them all you want. yes, if people weren't leaving, if people weren't dropping out of the job search process then there would be more people in it. ok. but what's important is the number. and the number is good for obama in the psychological way and also if you look historically. what we've just been through in the past year is one of the -- the changes are tiny, but one of the longest declines in the unemployment rate since 1984, so that's a very good trend for the president and public opinion polls have been sending these mixed signals. the most recent "wall street journal" poll had the wrong track number sky high, 60%. but of those who felt like the economy was improvin